A4 cat in Ireland

notanotherhill

Can anyone tell me what the situation is with A4 cat in Ireland. Whats the criteria for having an A4 licence etc.

Ive looked on the cycling Ireland site and cant find any info on it. Is it a new cat for this year or did it come in last year while I was recovering from my little argument with a toyota corolla

Thanks

LangerDan

The Cycling ireland website continues to be a complete shambles.

This is the basis for what they were hoping to do - I think the actual implementation is close enough to this for your purposes.
http://www.irishcycling.com/publish/news/art_4294.shtml


I think the general intent of the A4 category is to make it make it such an overpopulated nightmare that riders will try to move up just to survive.
(CI went down this road 20 years ago with the introduction of 3rd cat licences. I really hope they manage it a lot better this time around)

blorg

LangerDan wrote:

I think the general intent of the A4 category is to make it make it such an overpopulated nightmare that riders will try to move up just to survive.

It can hardly be more populated than 3rd cat was last year as it is a subset of that.

The intention is to provide an entry-level category that stronger riders are bumped up from quickly, to A3. Leaving A4 as more accessible for those starting out, and giving them more of a chance.

Part of this is grading vets and juniors which also makes a lot of sense.

Looking at the A4 rider list though there are some strong riders in there. Presumably they will move up quickly.

Lot of discussion on Boards.ie on this topic:

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthre ... 2055457878
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthre ... 2055663399
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthre ... 2055771352
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthre ... 2055804568

notanotherhill

Thanks guys, it isnt just the site thats a shambles, apparently its too much work for them to reply to emails or even answer the phone.

Given that both of you are obviously quite experienced in the racing world im taking it from your comments that it wasnt a huge sucess the last time they tried this.

Thanks guys

notanotherhill

Just on a point of the link you gave me Langer Dan, it states that it will include "vets just in it for a bit of fun". It may be an unfair comparison but ive ridden club races against some of these type of vets and they would skin you.....still very good riders indeed. If the idea is to have a cat for people who are genuinely new to open racing or racing in any form is it not a bit arse about face to have a guy there who could have 20 years of racing behind him?

blorg

I'm new to racing myself, just started last year although cycling for far longer. LangerDan sounds like he has been around a lot longer.

Part of the whole idea with this change is that the Vets will now be graded themselves. Previously all the Vets were lumped together, generally with 3rd cats, (the previous lowest cat.) Now the good Vets will have to race with people of similar abilities. So it is an improvement in that regard.

notanotherhill

..if it works blorg

LangerDan

The problem last time around was that they introduced a lower 3rd category to help provide an introductory level, out of which good riders would be promoted to second cat. - so far, so Category A4.

The problem was that while they got the increase in numbers, the race infrastructure wasn't often able to support it. We had 3rd Cat races with ~120 riders and perhaps 40 riders in the combined 1st / 2nd cat race. Commisaires had the discretion to split the field if it went over 100 (?) for safety grounds but I never heard of if happening.Riders were getting placed but "head office" didn't manage to keep up to date with the points and many good riders spent several seasons pot-hunting the 3rd cat races rather than moving up.
If CI manage this efficiently, it is a very good set-up. If not, they may as well chuck it in the bin now.


Blorg - I think the numbers will be higher this year.(For some reason, licence numbers tend to increase when the economy is in the can) I've managed to persuade a few guys to try racing for the first time and I'm hearing of a number of comebacks. I'd imagine the scenario is being repeated around the country.

Personally, I'm looking for the "Vets who are in it and trying not to get destroyed" category.

notanotherhill

Yeah ive seen from the calendar (when i managed to find it on the ci site) that many of the A4 races are just being tagged in with A3 events, which are in the region of 80km to 100km, which in turn flies in the face of what the initial posting you put stated about A4s not riding more than 60km in one day. Doesnt look like a good start. As an add on, CI still havent answered my email about this or returned a call.....I know riders like myself are small fish in the bigger pool of things, but how long would it take to bang out an email explaining what i asked for?